Anticipating a close to capacity crowd of 5,000 plus for tonight’s championship game between Butler and Sidney. Round 1 at Sidney was a showdown that lived up to the hype and I expect no less tonight. The Jackets bring in one of the most electrifying players in the area in Andre Gordon and he and the crew will be looking to play spoiler on Butler’s outright championship aspirations. In spite of being the biggest high school arena in southwest Ohio this was is going to be a packed house so get here early. I don’t know that there is a bigger game in the state tonight.

I expect a great game as well. Sidney as we know is not very deep. I think they need to hold the ball on offense some to have a chance to win. If you are going to play man to man defense against them, Butler makes you work so hard defensively on every possession with their constant screens. Then with all of the energy you have to exert against them on defense that if you have short and bad offensive possessions (via bad shot early or turnover) they come down and kill you on the offensive end by grinding and wearing you down. Their constant effort and execution gives their opponents very little room for error. Hopefully Sidney and Andre are hitting from the perimeter on offense and their perimeter defense and switching is on point. Sidney has played little zone this year, but I'll be interested to see if they run some if not a lot to try and conserve some of their energy for offense.

I expect a great game as well. Sidney as we know is not very deep. I think they need to hold the ball on offense some to have a chance to win. If you are going to play man to man defense against them, Butler makes you work so hard defensively on every possession with their constant screens. Then with all of the energy you have to exert against them on defense that if you have short and bad offensive possessions (via bad shot early or turnover) they come down and kill you on the offensive end by grinding and wearing you down. Their constant effort and execution gives their opponents very little room for error. Hopefully Sidney and Andre are hitting from the perimeter on offense and their perimeter defense and switching is on point. Sidney has played little zone this year, but I'll be interested to see if they run some if not a lot to try and conserve some of their energy for offense.

That seemed to be what happened in the first game. Sidney was in control and aggressive most of the night but it seemed like fatigue hit late and Butler was able to get out of town with a hard fought win. Going to be intense but looking forward to it. Should be a great atmosphere!

That seemed to be what happened in the first game. Sidney was in control and aggressive most of the night but it seemed like fatigue hit late and Butler was able to get out of town with a hard fought win. Going to be intense but looking forward to it. Should be a great atmosphere!

Agreed! I was glad to see they made the game free to the students. As you said should be great atmosphere for a top notch HS basketball game.